


Field Trip

by easterangelstatue



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Toph Beifong-centric, Toph is a cinnamon roll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25314412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easterangelstatue/pseuds/easterangelstatue
Summary: Toph and Zuko go to a fundraiser, how bad can it get?
Kudos: 32





	Field Trip

“Toph, I brought you with me because you know what upper-class parties look like, so please under any circumstances, do not beat someone up”

“Sparky, I know what I’m doing”

“I know you do, it’s just sometimes you can be a little-“

“A little what,” She said with anger in her voice.

The new fire lord didn’t know what to do, had he just offended one of his closest friends, who also happened to be the strongest earthbender alive. Sure she reveled in her, uh, forwardness, but did she take offense at this remark.

The fire lord’s face tensed up, he was sweating, and Toph could feel his heart beating faster. She understood what he was feeling so she replied with:

“Relax Sparky, I’m not going to kill you”

Feeling a bit better, Zuko grabbed Toph’s arm and the pair entered the building. It wasn’t anything particularly huge, but it was filled to the brim with decorations, servants, food, and nobles.

“Fire Lord Zuko, we are honored by your visit to our humble establishment”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Yang”

“And who might this fine lady be?”

“This is Master Toph Beifong”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Yang”  
“Well I hope you enjoy this little fundraiser”

Those were the last things he said before he left to talk with another noble.

“See I told you I could behave myself,” said Toph as she punched his arm slightly.

The fundraiser was, as Lord Yang said, little, but it included some of the most powerful people in the Fire Nation, most of whom disliked the new Fire Lord. So Zuko was lying a bit when he said he only took Toph because of her noble upbringings.

“You know Sparky, I never really liked these things, my NOBLE and SHELTERED childhood might be a reason, maybe this DANCE could help me”

“If you’re trying to get a life-changing field trip out of me”

“I’m not”

“But if you are, then I hate to say this, but it’s not working. Also, this is a fundraiser, not a dance.”

Toph realizing that Zuko had seen through her plans gave up and said: “Well it was worth a shot”

Zuko left her side to greet some other Fire Nation officials, most of whom carried knives in their coats. 

Toph made quick work of them by metal bending them into tiny trophies of herself and continued wandering around the place. Wandering, though, would be a false term to describe what she was doing. Infect, she was headed to one place, in particular, the kitchens.

She quietly entered the room through the backdoor, avoided the staff, and grabbed some meat pies.

When she returned to the main room, the dancing had started, she could feel the multitude of people moving around in complex and intricate patterns, if there was one thing this stupid nation could do, it was overcomplicate anything and it gave Toph a headache.

She sat down far away from where any guest could see her, raised her feet, and started eating her meat pie. After all, she doesn’t want to eat her delicious pie and get a worse headache

“What are you doing alone”

“Spirits Sparky, you scared me”

“Did I just manage to sneak up on Toph Befiong, master of the earth bending arts and its complementary forms?” He replied in a smug tone.

Toph didn’t reply.

“Hey, uh, is everything okay?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, it’s just all this dancing, the vibrations and movements give me a headache”

She lied, it wasn’t just the dancing it was-

She stopped her train of thought as a man dressed in full body armor entered the room.

“Fire Lord Zuko, for crimes against the Fire Nation and the blooming Phoenix Empire I sentence you to death by beheading”

The man launched at Zuko, his sword moving in ways that only a few could achieve. Zuko quickly replied with a series of fire plumes. As the two men exchanged hits, Toph threw a couple of boulders at him, which he managed to avoid.

Zuko started running, baiting the man out of the room and into the open field under the cliff. The man managed to get into the shallow lake. Fire and rocks came flying in the direction of this man and he managed to dodge them all. This man had to be good, Toph could barely see him. His movements were almost as quick as Aang’s. The man came close to slicing Zuko in half, but he was stopped by a barrage of boulders flying his way. Toph tried to metal bend his sword but it refused to budge, she couldn’t detect pieces of earth in that sword, whatever this metal is, it was really pure. Eventually, that stupid assassin finally came back to land, the moment that he did, fire hit his arm, and he was enclosed in a cone of rocks. That man had finally been stopped.

Toph approached Zuko and asked him to identify what that sword was made of, then she made her way near the palace and sat on a nearby bench.

She could feel him approaching her this time.

“Hey you-“

“Yes I’m okay don’t worry about it Zuko”

“I wasn’t asking if you were hurt, I was asking if you were okay”

“Don’t. Worry, About. It.”

“Saying “it” means there’s something you aren’t telling me about.”

He paused for a moment and put his hands on her shoulders.

“You’ve been like this since people started dancing, so answer me, Toph what’s wrong?” 

He sounded concerned, no more than that, he sounded worried. She didn’t speak.

“Toph you didn’t mess around with anyone, you didn’t destroy something, you didn’t even play along and dance with some of the teenagers who were fawning over you what’s wrong?”

“Nobody wants to,” She said softly

“Nobody wants to what?”

“Nobody wants to dance with the blind girl, nobody ever wanted to dance with the blind girl”

She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but as tears started pouring from her eyes, it was time she faced the reality of her situation.

“I’ll do it”

“What?”

“I’ll dance with you”

“B-but why I’m blind, I’ve never even danced with someone in my life, how could you want to dance with me?”

“Because you asked”

“No, I didn’t”

“Yes you did”

Spirits, this kid was turning into his uncle, soon he would be able to surpass his uncle’s wisdom.

He stood up and extended his arm, reaching out to her. She stood up, grabbed his arm, and started following his lead. Again, this nation sure knew how to make this complicated, but it didn’t matter. She enjoyed every minute and every second of this dance.

When they finished, they sat back down.

“Thank you”

“Hmm” he looked at her.

“Thank you”

She punched his arm.

“Anyways we better get back to the palace before Sugar Queen and Goth Lady start sending search troops”

There was a moment of silence.

“I guess that makes up for my life-changing field trip”

“ So how did I do?” He asked jokingly, chuckling after.

“Eh, it wasn’t that good, not a lot of bad guys to beat up”

Zuko looked at his friend before getting hit with a small pebble.

They headed for the inner palace, and entered Zuko’s quarters, joining the rest of Team Avatar.  
“So did you enjoy your trip with Zuko,” asked Aang

“Wasn’t that great, but I finally got my field trip”

“Your what” came an angry voice from the washroom, she could feel Mai readying her knives. Sokka quickly saved the situation by saying

“An adventure that changes your life, we all had ours with Zuko except for Toph, and now she got it”

“You still owe me mine,” said Suki.

“I just got out of debt for that one, I don’t just create these things you know”

“Mai and I want ours as well,” said Ty Lee

At this point, it was a miracle that Zuko didn’t light the entire room up.

“How about you tell us about yours, Katara, your aura seems to be the clearest, so you probably had the best one”

Aang, Sokka, and Katara all groaned.

“It’s best if we save it for another time”

“Which reminds me, why is everyone in my room”

“Hey we can’t help it if you have the best room in the Fire Nation, my boomerang needs the safest and best protection it can get”


End file.
